25 February 2015

I have been following a worn path through the snow to check on the chickens. Yesterday I noticed that something else had been following my path. At first I thought it had simply crossed my path but then I realized it was following in my footsteps.

23 February 2015

I swore to myself I would not do a "woe is me" post. Face it. Everyone has had suck weather. It snowed in Florida! Below zero in Alabama. Three stories of snow in Boston. Winter was is tough.

I was not homeless, nor injured, nor incapacitated. A lot of small things have happened. Any one of them would have been a pain. However, there have been so many small things that the pain has become comical. So here goes.

I got sick right after Christmas and was sick well past New Years.

(I should perhaps mention that Alabama lost to Ohio State in the playoff, but I won't.)

The heat at the store, where I have my office and books, went out. The weather was so bad, no one could come and fix the heat.

The pipes in the back burst, flooding the back of the store.

There was a thaw, but the building had been so cold that the moisture crystallized then thawed so the interior of store began to literally rain on my books.

I had to go and get painting tarps to cover all the books. And yes, I lost about 100, but it could have been much worse.

The heat got fixed as did the pipes. Most of the books were saved.

However, all that moisture made the paint on the ceiling flake off, so every day the floor looks like there has been snow.

There is still a huge pile of wet, now frozen, debris sitting outside the door.

The water at the house froze and we went 3 days, then 4 days, without water.

The washing machine broke -- but not before it filled up with water and wet clothes that sat a week before anyone could come and fix the washer.

It was the worst January on record and I was longing for February to arrive.

The first day of February, my computer crashed. I spent a week on the phone with experts to no avail. The first day of February it didn't snow, I headed to Pittsburgh to get the computer fixed.

The computer was fixed, but the water froze again.

My friend, Ann, came out to spend a weekend. She brought seafood, which was fun. She also brought germs.

I was sick, again. Ann felt bad and sent medicine from Amazon. But she forgot to change the address so she was getting the medicine. Undaunted, she bought more medicine and headed to Fedex.

Fedex lost the package.

Shirley, WV is tiny. The ONLY thing in town is the Post Office. I told Fedex, to leave the package at the little building next to the post office. The one whose door says: "Leave Fedex here." They left it somewhere else.

Two days later, someone found my box, read the note on the box and left it -- next to the Post Office at the door that says: "Leave Fedex here."

Of course, I was well by the time the medicine arrived. Fortunately the box also contained Red Velvet Oreos.

Soon it will be March. I would say, I am hoping for Spring but I am going to think bigger and hope for 2016!

P.S. After posting this, I went out to go to the Post Office -- I had a flat tire! Praying for New Year's Eve!